Grocers, name-brand food producers at odds over prices

Supermarkets complain that giant food manufacturers' wholesale prices have risen even as commodity costs have fallen.

There's a tug-of-war underway over food prices between the nation's supermarkets and giant food manufacturers including Nestle, Unilever and Kellogg.

The nation's big grocery chains contend that food manufacturers have raised prices too fast and too far, considering large drops in prices for fuel, corn, wheat and other important commodities in recent months.

The food companies disagree and say they are still coping with many rising prices themselves.

At issue are surging wholesale prices for products such as Nestle's Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, which rose 14% last April. Since then, the price that farmers get for milk -- the main ingredient -- has dropped 36%.

Kraft raised the wholesale price of a box of its staple macaroni and cheese an average of 9% in the last year, according to several supermarket chains, despite 38% to 68% plunges in cheese and wheat prices. These increases factor in the growing practice by the manufacturers of shrinking the weight of the contents without reducing wholesale prices.

The grocers are fuming. One large grocery company operating in Southern California has seen the wholesale price for a carton of Kellogg's Corn Pops rise about 17% since June -- despite a 52% plunge in corn prices from their peak that month.

Jeff Noddle, chief executive of Supervalu Inc., described the conflict as "kind of a battleground with manufacturers right now. We are pressing for a reduction in prices."

The costs of the raw goods that go into almost every food product have fallen by substantial amounts, said Jonathan Feeney, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

The dropping price of grains "has widespread impact across food. Not only are corn, soybeans and wheat key ingredients in products up and down the snack, cereal, soup, bakery and other aisles, but they also serve as key inputs in commodity protein and dairy production," he wrote in a recent report to investors.

Unilever called the situation "complex," with pricing levels remaining "both volatile and unpredictable in the medium to long term."

Grocers said that Unilever last year increased the wholesale price of its Skippy peanut butter by about a nickel a jar after shrinking the contents of the container by almost 10%.

"It is only recently that we have seen some price decreases for certain commodities, such as milk, butter, wheat, corn, soybeans and edible and mineral oils, but most of these still remain above historical averages," said Dean Mastrojohn, spokesman for Unilever U.S. "We also see prices for certain commodities that we use, such as beef extract, tomatoes and tea, continuing to increase."

Food manufacturers will eventually bow to pressure to moderate prices -- and some have already started to lower prices here and there -- as consumers change buying habits and inventories of unsold products build, said Christopher Shanahan, an analyst at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio.

Price increases by national brands have left supermarkets in a difficult position. Shoppers are fleeing to less expensive Wal Mart Stores Inc. and other discounters, trading down to house brands and other products that have smaller profit margins. In some cases, they are just going without.

"You would not believe the amount of food we have to put on the table," said Mike Dills, a bed salesman from Apple Valley who shops for a blended, multigenerational family of four adults and six children.

Dills recently took advantage of a Stater Bros. special on two house-brand 30-ounce, self-rising pizzas for $7.

"They are the same quality as the Freschetta or DiGiorno brands that sell for $5.99 each," Dills said.

Choices made by budget-conscious shoppers such as Dills are starting to take their toll on Kraft, which saw its share of the frozen pizza market slip late last year. It also has lost share in the macaroni and cheese and cold cuts segments of its business.

Kraft spokesman Mike Mitchell noted that in each of those categories, the company was still growing -- just not as fast as competitors, especially house brands.

Kraft estimates that its overall cost of commodities will continue to increase this year by about $200 million. That comes on top of a $2-billion increase in commodity expenses paid by the company last year.

Kellogg also defended its prices by citing what it called continued high expenses.